


Negotiator

by Faber



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen, Politics, Post-Mass Effect 1, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-10
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-07-14 05:37:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7155785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faber/pseuds/Faber
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At a restaurant two Humans talk during lunch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Negotiator

**Author's Note:**

> Includes minor spoilers for ME1.  
> Set at sometime during the two years Shepard is considered KIA.

 “But it’s discrimination!”

 “Only to Turians. If a race attacks us we should be able to decide whether they are allowed in Human space”

 “The Turians have paid reparations for the First Contact War and fought side by side with us against the Geth. Things change”

 “Thousands of Humans died at Shanxi! The Turians can’t just bribe us. Human life is invaluable”

 “So, what? We just wallow in self-pity for the rest of history because we had a bad experience? Turians died in the war too and their lives…”

 “They attacked us! Without warning they conquered and occupied what they were stupid enough to think was our Homeworld. Frankly, I’m glad Turians died at Shanxi. The only way other races will leave us in peace is if they see good reason to fear attacking us”

 “Actually, I kind of agree with you there. But that doesn’t mean the conflict has to continue to colour our decision-making in peacetime. It works both ways. We can make war with us scary but wouldn’t other races be twice as likely to leave us in peace if we _also_ make peace with us great?”

 “’Make peace with us great?’ You mean look softer than a Hanar’s gonads?”

 “Erm… I’m not actually sure Hanar have… those. But no, I don’t think it would make us look soft. I think we need to show that we are willing and able to hurt anyone who’d be violent to us but… honestly, I don’t want to have to live in that sort of… stressful atmosphere for my whole life. And I wouldn’t want to raise kids in that sort of environment. We need places and times where we can feel, for lack of a better term, safe”

 “We’ll only feel safe if we blow up the mass relays leading to alien space or all aliens suddenly commit suicide”

 “Before we even knew about aliens a lot of Humans didn’t feel safe. Humans were killing Humans all the time. If either of those things really happened how long would it take before we went back to fighting each other?”

 “At least that way, whoever wins, the Human race survives”

 “That’s assuming there isn’t Mutually Assured Destruction”

 “What? That couldn’t happen now. Not with Humans spread across plenty of clusters on dozens of worlds. No one event could wipe us out except for massive alien invasion”

 “Maybe you’re right, but it doesn’t matter because those are incredibly unlikely hypothetical scenarios. Unless you’re suggesting we exterminate all other races, we can’t have that. And seeing as we aren’t powerful enough to wipe out even half of the other races, we _really_ can’t have that”

 “So we have to be strong enough to repel alien invaders in war and peace”

 “It’s hard enough to settle planets in the Traverse _with_ alien companies investing. We can’t take their money and reject their people. And why should we be allowed in Turian space if they get banned from Alliance territory?”

 “No Human really _needs_ to go to Hierarchy space. Besides, our own companies should fund our colonies… our companies _could_ fund them more if taxes were lower. The Alliance parliament is responsible for essentially letting Asari, Turian and Volus corporations get a financial gain from the hard work and risks taken by Human colonists!”

 “The investors are taking a risk too. And why shouldn’t the investors get a return? What race they are shouldn’t matter”

 “Uh huh… I notice you avoid the tax issue… again. Is that… worth noticing?”

 “What’s worth noticing Karen… is the time. I have to get back to the Embassy”

 “Oh, Tom. See you at the concert?”

 “Yeah, see you then”

 Tom picked up the strange tasting espresso and walked off to the rapid transit. He had worked at the embassy for over a year and still found the Presidium to be awe-inspiring. Arcturus station seemed quaint by comparison. He was glad every time he saw it that his predecessor, Keeler, had been dismissed. Some sort of drug problem…

 Then there was Karen, a low level executive at ExoGeni’s Citadel office. They became close during a negotiation for military grade firearms to be provided by the Alliance to the colonists on Feros. ExoGeni was funding the purchase (uncharacteristically generous of them) but the military was worried about the transaction; the Alliance brass didn’t exactly trust the colonists on Feros, the whole mind-link thing was troubling. And it didn’t help that their representative during the negotiations was a formerly indoctrinated servant of Saren and Benezia.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is the result of specific paragon actions in ME1; saving Zhu’s Hope, helping Elias Keeler with his habit, persuading Jeong and sparing Shiala
> 
> ‘Tom’ is Thomas Kent, a character whose only presence in the Mass Effect trilogy is that he is mentioned by one minor character (Keeler) in ME1. I wanted to expand on what little we learned of his view, given that you never meet him and only Keeler gives you information about him. And Keeler is, well… not in the best state of mind.
> 
> Special thanks to Shannon for beta.


End file.
